The Church, The Tribulation, and The New MillenniumbyKenneth V. Ryland

Millennial speculation
is rampant, and there are as many theories of what the new millennium will bring as there
are "prophets" to proclaim them. There are secular views, New Age views, and
Christian views of the importance of the year 2000. Most of the Christian speculation
about the coming millennium revolves around the return of Jesus Christ to earth. On all
sides we hear of fulfilled Bible prophecy. The state of the state of Israel constantly
draws our attention as preachers harangue about the coming Temple, the abomination of
desolation, the Great Tribulation, and Armageddon.

Let's assume for a moment that all these pronouncements about the
return of Christ and the events leading up to it are true. What are you doing to prepare
for His return? Let me restate the question: What are you doing to prepare yourself and
your loved ones for the period immediately prior to the return of Christ? I think it best
to put the question in that manner because there is a tendency to skip past the coming
Tribulation with little thought about what it means to go through a period described as
one of "... great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the
world until this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days were shortened, no
flesh would be saved; but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened"
(Matthew 24:21-22). Most Christians have a very vague notion of what these two verses mean
for them personally. To most their seriousness is comparable to going through a divorce,
losing a loved one, or having to file for bankruptcy. Have you ever heard someone say
something like, "If we just 'tough it out,' it will be 'no problem.' It may be a
little tougher than other things we have gone through, but, hey, if we just 'ratchet up'
our faith a little, we will make it fine"?

But will we?

Since we are dealing with "What ifs," I would like to set
this whole scenario in a different light. What if all this turmoil in the world
today is a harbinger of something we really do not expect? After all, does God count time
by the Roman calendar? Does the year 2000 really mean anything to him? What if the
coming of Christ is actually 50 to 100 years off, and these dark clouds on the world's
political horizon are a portent of a protracted period of great evil in human history with
no prospect of Jesus' immediate return? How would you as a Christian prepare yourself to
live (and die) in this kind of world? This would indeed be real tribulation. Could you
skip past it with no plan for dealing with such an eventuality?

To amplify this view further, think about some of the circumstances
that make our time one of the most dangerous in history. Just pick up the newspaper. What
soothing headlines do you read? Or, turn on the network news in the evening. Is there any
comfort there? Now, project today's trends some 50 or more years into the future. For the
sake of our discussion, let's put the return of Christ at the year 2053, just out of reach
of your lifetime, if you are of middle-age. Now, look at the world from the point of view
that you will be gone before Jesus comes. How will you prepare yourself and your family to
live in a world that is increasingly hostile to everything you stand for? Please
understand that ours is not the first generation of Christians to face such alienation
from the world. We in the West have been spared what our brothers and sisters in other
parts of the world have routinely suffered, and we have a hard time believing that our own
comfortable circumstances could change. But, Jesus nowhere said, "In this world you
will have comfort." What he said was, "In this world you will have
tribulation," which means that our life of ease has an expiration date.

You may be thinking right now, "what a negative article! I wonder
if there is anything better in this magazine." Well, I cannot blame you if you are
thinking such thoughts. I had to go through a litany of emotions and psychological
defenses before I looked at this whole matter squarely, and I am not yet sure that I fully
grasp the seriousness of this subject. Nonetheless, I believe that this matter of the
state of the world and our preparation for the bad times that loom ahead needs to be faced
head-on. Otherwise, we will never have an adequate defense or preparation for it. So, the
object of this article is not to incite fear in you. Rather, it is to help you confront
this "thing in the dark," that no one wants to look at (i.e., our less-than-rosy
future), and find ways to deal with it.

What makes this topic even less palatable is that many people are
making lots of money, buying new homes, building businesses, sending kids to college, and
in general, enjoying a prosperous existence. The movie theaters and restaurants are
packed. The supermarket shelves are full. People are planning new homes, starting
families, and planning for retirement. With all this, why worry about "the things we
cannot control." After all, this could go on for quite a few more years, couldn't it?

The Judgment of God
We seem loathe to consider that the judgment of God is upon us and our children, not just
upon people in other less "civilized" parts of the world. And, God's judgment is
upon us for one very good reason: our preoccupation with ourselves and our own comfort.
All our national sins are rooted in our desire to satisfy ourselves ahead of all others.
God's will is no longer the nucleus around which our lives are built. He gets a couple of
hours per week (if he's lucky), but our time and our money are our own. Right? We seem to
have forgotten that what we do here on this earth is not the end of the matter. He
scrutinizes and judges us and our nation. Though our ultimate personal judgment is for a
future time, when it comes to nations, there is no "future" judgment. God's
future judgment applies only to individuals. God judges nations in the here-and-now. That
is because they will not exist as political entities in the future. If a nation becomes so
evil that God cannot tolerate the sight of it, he will bring that nation to its knees.
God's people have always lived in nations that have come under his judgment. As Christians
we are the mirror of God reflecting into the face of society around us. We are a constant
reminder of what the ungodly are rejecting.

So, on what basis does God judge nations? On the basis of national
sins! Can you begin to see why our Western nations, particularly the one I live in, the
United States, cannot escape God's judgment? When God looks down on us, he does not see a
righteous nation. He sees a nation brimming over with corruption, one in which adultery
and homosexuality are commonplace. Crime fills our streets as bribes and extortion fill
our halls of government. He sees us killing our own babies and calling it birth control.
Even worse, he sees our doctors (at our request) performing partial-birth abortions where
babies are killed before they are fully delivered so that their body parts can be
harvested. And, we declare such things to be our right. How long do you suppose that God
will tolerate such arrogance? Our politicians take bribes, even from our enemies, and call
them "soft money" contributions. God's judgment is upon this nation, and his
judgment always brings tribulation and terror.

We who were weaned by the Almighty and raised into a nation of refugees
who fled from religious and political tyranny in other countries have now become
encouragers of the forces of darkness. In the United States the first act of Congress
after the nation gained its independence was to appropriate money to buy Bibles for
schools. How far down we have plummeted! Our Supreme Court once ruled that we are a
Christian nation, but we now threaten with fine and imprisonment those who would dare to
post the 10 Commandments in the classroom or the courtroom. We have from the beginning
declared to the world that we are to be called by the name of Jesus Christ, a Christian
nation, yet we have become fat and decadent, and have made the whole world drunk with our
sins. Instead of using the wealth with which God blessed us to bring the righteousness of
Christ to the world, we use God's blessings to drag the world into slavery and hell after
us.

Whether we like it or not, people in non-Christian nations view Western
nations, particularly the U.S., as the representatives of Christ in this world. As God
told Israel anciently (Deuteronomy 4:5-9), the nations will look at his people as an
example of who he is and how righteous he is. If we become corrupt, non-Christians come to
believe that the God of Christianity is corrupt and not worth following. We make ourselves
a stumbling block to seeking non-believers and turn them away from God toward Satan's
panoply of religions and ideologies. Jesus said that "offenses will come, but woe
to him [in our case, "woe to that nation"] by whom such offenses
come" (Matthew 18:7).

What Is Most Important to You?
The premise of this article is based on accepting the possibility that instead of a
quickly passing period of international and domestic turmoil, we must prepare ourselves
for a lengthy span of economic distress, political unrest, and religious persecution
culminating in the 3 1/2 years of the Great Tribulation during the year 2049 A.D., a date
by which all but a few of us will be pushing up daisies. Let's say that serious political
upheaval and religious persecution begin in our country in the year 2003 and reach their
crescendo at Jesus' return 50 years later. That puts the Savior's return at the jubilee of
this chronicle of woe. What will you do during the time you have left? What is really
important to you, and what is important to the body of Christ? Would anything change for
you? How will you prepare yourself to face a world without comfort? How will you take care
of your children or other loved ones? What will you do to hold the "Church of
God," the body of Christ together, or would it be everyone for himself?

My own observation is that we Christians in the U.S. and other Western
countries are not prepared for any reduction in lifestyle, let alone persecution. Yet, we
continually read the words of Jesus who said that "if they hated me, they will
hate you also," and "a man's enemies will be those of his own household,"
and "there will come a time when men will kill you thinking they are doing God a
service" (Jn 15:18, Mt 10:36, Jn 16:2). When we hear these words from our Savior,
we generally think, "Yes, I know. It's going to be really bad," and get up from
our seats in church and continue on as if nothing had happened. What few realize is that
we thought the whore who sits as a queen was someone else, but it is we who have turned
into this loathsome creature. Being a whore is an attitude; it has nothing to do with who
your ancestors were. It has been our choice that our nation walk the anti-God path we are
on. We choose our leaders, our entertainment, and our ethics. We are like the baby girl
whom God saw as he passed along the road. The child was bloodied and abandoned at the side
of the road. God had compassion on the child and picked her up and carried her to his home
where he washed her, cleaned her wounds, and dressed her in the finest of garments. She
grew up in his house where he raised her with loving care. When she reached womanhood, he
married her, but her heart was not with him. Her soul wantonly besought every passerby to
come into her bed, and she abandoned the home God had made for her. Read this moving story
in chapter 16 of Ezekiel.

It is my firm belief that in this age in which the stench of our
national sins has risen to fill the nostrils of God, we must not hang on to the vanishing
things of this world, but to Christ and each other. Our material prosperity has made us
lazy and complacent, and we must awaken ourselves to see our own spiritual nakedness so
that we are not swept away in the tide of evil that is now washing over our vaunted
Western culture. Our civilization is dying, and we must not allow our Christian virtue to
die with it.

What about you? What kind of adjustment could you make to
"harsher" circumstances? Where will you get your strength when they offer you a
loaf to feed your starving child in exchange for renouncing Christ? In this age of
splintering relationships and splinter groups, will there be a group of faithful fellow
Christians who can rally to your aid? Jesus said, "Wherever two or more are
gathered in My name, there will I be also." Are we Christians so divided among
ourselves that we will not even be able to find "two or more" who will intercede
for us "in His name?" Our life in Christ is "in the body." This is not
to say that we do not have spiritual life outside our fellowship with other Christians.
Rather, it means that each of us is nourished in Christ within the body of
Christthat is, in fellowship with other believers. Jesus set up the Church that way
and did not intend that we should be separated islands of individuality, each with its own
mutually alienating set of doctrines. Jesus knew that we would be better off in close
fellowship with other believers than by ourselves.

Again, we are back to the original question: How will you as a
Christian prepare yourself to live in a culture in which sin and violence are rampant,
governmental control is absolute, and to be a Christian means to be an outlaw?

First Things First
I have come to the realization that many Christians are deathly afraid of being deceived.
In discussions with many people, it has become apparent that there is a near paranoia
about being tricked into taking the Mark of the Beast. This, I believe, is at the root of
some of the contentiousness that has divided Christians over doctrinal subjects. Every
difference of opinion is seen as having the potential of causing the hapless believer to
wind up in the Lake of Fire. For this reason, we have seen many "champions of
doctrinal purity" rush forward from the ranks to "save" the people of God
from the "satanic" doctrine of pastor X and from their own stupidity. And, with
each new champion comes a handful of believers following in his train, believing that they
now constitute the one "true" remnant of the Church of God.

Need it be said that this situation is not healthy for the body of
Christ as a whole or for the manifold groups that disperse in a thousand different
directions with most of the people never speaking again to the fellow believers they left
behind.

There is a cure for this malaise, and it is very simple. It would allow
people to hold to their own beliefs and at the same time fellowship with others who may
not share their convictions 100%. Achieving a truce in the doctrinal wars is, I believe,
absolutely critical in preserving fellowship and friendship in the body of Christ during
the very difficult days ahead. And, I believe, your life depends on it. Remember that
Jesus stated that he prayed we would be one as he and the Father are one (John 17:21).
Being one does not mean that Christians refuse to speak to each other.

In Matthew 6:33 our Savior clearly laid out our priorities:
"Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you." Lack of complete understanding of this verse has contributed to
the breakdown in fellowship that we see around us. Most have been taught to view Jesus'
statement in a futuristic context. We think of the kingdom of God as a future reign that
he establishes at his second coming. That is true, but incomplete in its explanation. When
we seek first the kingdom of God, we seek to allow Christ to reign within us now, in this
present age. The fact that he rules in us now means that we will have the right to rule
with him when he returns. His righteousness is established in us through his ruling
presence in us. We have often heard of having a "personal relationship with
Christ." When we "seek first the kingdom," we mean to establish a personal
relationship with Christ and allow him to be Lord over us. He rules.

Much of the fear of deception that drives many believers derives from
the lack of a personal relationship with our Lord. We often tend to make intense,
intellectually oriented, Bible study our foundation for following God rather than faith in
the person of Jesus Christ. We forget that he is the one who pronounced the words of
Scripture either directly or through his apostles and prophets. So, our focal point must
be on him, not just on the words. The words are a reflection of him, but they do not take
the place of him. When Jesus said, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to
you," (John 14:18) it was in the discussion of sending "another
Comforter," the Holy Spirit, to dwell in the believer so that the believer could have
constant, personal contact with him. If we concentrate on doctrinal studies outside
the context of our personal relationship with Christ and our oneness with other believers,
we wind up like the Pharisees with heads full of knowledge and hearts of stone. We create
lists of what is acceptable and unacceptable, and make these items our criterion for
fellowship, instead of our fellowship in Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The things that make us acceptable to Christ must be the things that
make us acceptable to each other. If we are to survive the dark days ahead, it is
imperative that we Christians emphasize our sameness in Christ rather than our differences
over doctrine. Otherwise, we might find ourselves turning each other in to the authorities
when our day of persecution comes thinking that we are doing God a service. Do we not
remember the parable of the wheat and the tares? Jesus did not give anyone of us license
to uproot and destroy others whom we perceive as tares (we being the wheat, or course). He
said to let them grow together until the harvest, and they would be separated at that time
(Mt 13:30). And, what about the admonition of the apostle Paul: "Who are you to
judge another man's servant? To his own master he stands or falls"? (Ro 14:4) No
believer is the master of any other believer. He stands or falls only to Christ. We must
have the mind of Christ in us to allow each other to respond to and grow in Christ without
our interference.

Confidence to Stand
There are two conditions in the lives of believers that, I believe, will allow individual
Christians and the body of Christ as a whole to stand faithfully during the frightful days
ahead. One is our personal relationship with Christ and the Father. The other is our
relationship and fellowship with each other. I have stated that our lack of personal
relationship with Christ has led us to a faulty belief that fellowship with other
believers is based on doctrinal tests and the fears that drive such judging. However, if
we put Him ahead of all other considerations, fellowship is preserved and doctrinal strife
is minimized.

There is yet another factor that contributes greatly to good and
constructive fellowship with other believers. That is the confidence that is gained by
growing in a personal relationship with Him. There are several reasons why this is so.

This principle can be seen better by contrasting it with the common
mode of understanding among many believers. The Word of God and the Law of God are often
used by Christians as the measure of all things. This kind of thinking breeds insecurity
for the simple reason that we don't all view these things the same. If my understanding of
God's Word is challenged, the most natural reaction is to become defensive and clash with
the challenger as if Christianity were only a contest of ideas and philosophies. Often
Christians feel they must "win the argument" because their faith is in their
arguments and their reasoning about the Scripture, rather than in Christ. Their sense of
security with God is built upon their own reasoning about God. Of course, this approach
assumes that if someone has greater knowledge of Scripture than they, he by definition has
greater insight and authority in matters of God. It ignores the admonition of Christ that "whoever
wants to be first must be your slave" (Mt 20:26-27, NIV). Rather, it assumes that
the "greatest" will be the most "doctrinally pure."

All we have to do is look at the spiritually deaf and blind Pharisees
of Jesus' day to know that the "scriptural/doctrinal study approach" alone does
not work. Yet, many Christians have fallen into the same trap and use Scripture knowledge
as a means of judging and gaining authority over other Christians. By its very nature,
this approach to spiritual understanding leads to competitive strife and undermines unity
and harmony among the brethren.

I hope no one will misunderstand: Knowledge of Scripture is very
valuable and essential to learning what God is like and to spiritual growth, but not if
used in the manner described. When employed as the ultimate test of spirituality, it will
always tear down rather than build up the body of Christ.

The basis of our confidence before God is how well we know him, not how
much we know about him. There is no higher compliment that the Scripture ever pays
to anyone than that he is a "friend of God" (Ex 33:11, Isa 41:8). This is
precisely what Jesus explained to his disciples, that those who are close to him are not
servants, but friends (Jn 15:13-15). Our insight into the meaning of Scripture is enhanced
by Christ's Spirit in us. When we humbly seek his will through prayer and study, God's
Spirit shows us how the principles of Scripture apply to us. To God, Scripture is never a
set of intellectual propositions to be debated.

Our acceptance to God is not governed by our acceptance to any other
human being or their view of Scripture. Understanding that the basis of our acceptance to
God is our closeness, submission and obedience to Christ, not "knowledge" of
Scriptureliberating us from all sorts of fears, including the one that assumes we
can somehow be deceived into receiving the mark of the Beast, or some other damnable
heresy. After all, every heresy is based on intellectual propositions and competing ideas
about God and his will. If our relationship with Christ himself is deep and secure, we
will know and hear our Master's voice as he said (Jn 10:27). We will not be deceived by
false shepherds. When we know him as friend, no one can snatch us out of his hand (Jn
10:28).

Winning the War
Western Christianity has to a great extent become encrusted in fear. We fear deception,
and we fear the torment that deception brings. We are split into multitudes of competing
factions, all because of our estrangement from our Lord and Savior.

If I were the enemy of Christianity, my strategy would be to divide one
against another, alienate brother from brother and sister from sister, so that I could
pick them off one by one. As a combined, spiritually unified force Christians are too
formidable for a frontal assault. To destroy the body of Christ, it must be done one
believer at a time, and one of the best ways to attack the individual Christian is to
splinter his fellowship group by presenting competing interpretations of Scripture. Those
whose relationship with Christ is weak and whose faith is based on "doctrinal
tests" will become alienated from the group. That way, the body of Christ will be
made ineffectual during the times of upheaval that lie ahead of us, and those who have
alienated themselves from other Christians will be less likely to be able to stand, nor
will they be willing to stand in the gap for estranged brothers and sisters.

There are some profound things said in Scripture about the Church in
the end time. One is that the people of God will "do exploits," (Da
11:32). Many assume that they have nothing to worry about because this scriptural
declaration is absolute. Not true! We might see a great fulfillment of this prophecy or a
weak one. The degree to which we saints "do exploits" depends on our faith and
our closeness to God. Please remember that the prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh did
not come to passnot because God lied, but because the people changed in their
relationship to God. The prophecy was conditional. Likewise, the extent of the
fulfillment of Daniel's prophecy depends on our closeness to and faith in Christ. Notice
also that this prophecy does not say "the individual of God," but the
"people of God." This implies fellowship and unity among God's people. When the
Bible states that the saints will do exploits, it does not mean that there will be a bunch
of Lone Rangers out there acting like Hollywood heroes. It will probably be 10 or 12
Christians in a room praying while one of them, selected by Jesus Christ through the
Spirit, steps out front to face the authorities and do the "exploits." This is
how it is being done right now in places like China, and I don't think we can expect
things to be any different when our time comes.

Our strength is in our unity because our unity is in Christ. Division
leads to weakness and destruction. That is why one of the greatest condemnations in the
Bible is reserved for "those who cause dissension among the brethren" (Pr
6:16-19). Jesus emphasized that "where two or three are gathered in My name, there
will I be also" (Mt 18:20). It is obvious from this passage that Jesus intended
for us to understand that our greatest strength comes when two or more are gathered in his
name. We are at war, and the strategies of war must be employed. When our pioneer
forefathers faced hostile Indian attacks, they circled the wagons so they could protect
each other and repel the attackers in a unified effort. Forts along the frontier served
not just as a refuge, but as a means of unifying the people to battle their common
enemies.

The Good News
When persecution comes and our comfortable lifestyle is snatched away from us, our
Christianity does not end there. We must never forget that we are in a contest, not for
what we can possess now, but for the possessions and rewards of God. If Jesus does not
come until the year 2053, his promise still stands: "To him who overcomes will I
grant to sit with me in my throne" (Rev 3:21).

It has always been the purpose of God to do us good and not evil. By
seeking first his kingdom (his rule) and his righteousness, we are open to receiving the
promise Jesus made: "and all these things shall be added unto you" (Mt
6:33). And, we put ourselves into the position of being able to share God's
blessings to us with other believers. There will be times when our abundance will satisfy
another's needs and when their blessings will bless us, but this can only happen if we are
all attached to the vine (Jesus Christ), which means that we are all part of the same
body, just different branches.

It is through Jesus, the Vine, that God's strength flows to us so that
we can stand against the enemy, and through that strength one will be able to put a
thousand to flight. Two will put ten thousand to flight (Dt 32:30). Notice in this verse
the multiplying effect of two facing the enemy as opposed to one.

The good news of the Good Book is that in the end we win, and our
triumph comes from belonging to Jesus Christto his body. The apostle Paul summed
this up very nicely in Ephesians 4, when he wrote that the purpose of preaching and
teaching was

"to prepare God's people for works of service so that the body
of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in faith and in the knowledge of the
Son of God, and become mature attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and
there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their
deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up
into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held
together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part
does its work" (verses 12-16, NIV).

There is nothing any of us wants more than to see the return of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. The prospect of slogging it out for the next 30, 40, or 50 years is
unpalatable. To be sure, there will be great joy for us at Jesus' return, and the quicker,
the better. However, should he not return until the year 2053, what will we do? Will we
finally be forced to think about mending broken relationships that we have refused to
consider because of our belief in Jesus' immediate return? If we are going to have to live
here for a while, should we not seek to be reconciled to all our alienated
brethren? If Jesus comes in three years, that lets us off the hook. We can go on
alienating and being alienated, offending and being offendednever forgiving (except
that our Lord will never accept such an attitude. How can we ever love our enemies if we
cannot even love our friends?). There is a very good reason the Bible says that everything
in the law is summed up in "love your neighbor as yourself" (Ro 13:8-10;
see also Php 2:3). After all, Jesus loved you more than his own life.